Successful school management in contexts with challenges (some lessons from practice)

This article reports data and conclusions on a research project, developed in the triennium 2005-08, under the Socrates-Comenius Programme, with the participation of nine European countries: England, Portugal, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Poland, Ireland and Spain, which principal objectives are geared to characterize the best practices of leadership in Early Childhood Education centres, Primary schools and Secondary schools, located in urban areas with challenges, and to identify the strategies used by their principals, in order to elaborate materials to facilitate the management of education and schools which can be used to train school leaders in any European country. The project includes thirty-six case studies, four from each participating country. Principals’ qualities and their strategies are identified and analyzed from the perspectives of the involved sectors (students, parents, teachers and themselves). The research offers emerging and significant topics, strategies and procedures as well as useful materials for education management, which can be of use in training management teams.